Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday attacked the Opposition for not taking part in the Election Commission’s challenge to hack an EVM, saying they have retreated after levelling baseless allegation for political gains. “Those who had levelled charges of tampering with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) could not gather courage to appear before the Election Commission to prove their charge and show how the machines could be tempered with.

“Except the two, all the political outfits remained away which shows that they were in the habit of levelling baseless charges to gain political mileage,” the Minister told PTI.

As many as 13 political parties had questioned the reliability of the EVMs, but when the Election Commission threw open a challenge to prove that the machines can be tampered with, only two parties accepted the dare but they too opted out of the event held Saturday. He also termed as “damp squib” the gathering of opposition leaders at a function of DMK chief Karunanidhi at Chennai.

He said that political parties, who have lost both the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, have been suffering from depression due to embarrassing defeats. They have miscalculated their competence and strength and their desire to gain power, he added.

Taking a dig at the Opposition, the Union minister said if a group of weak people dares a wrestler they would run away hearing his war cry. Later, in a press release he refuted the Opposition’s charge that economic growth figures have come down, Naqvi said that our GDP has rose from 4.4 per cent to 7.1 per cent during last three years.

“This period of the BJP’s regime has been acknowledged an era of confidence, commitment and character under the leadership of Narendra Modi,” he said, adding that bold and tough decisions taken by his government like demonetisation have helped black money.”Now we observing that there is no corruption, no scam, only development and trust,” he said.

Naqvi said that “development” is the character of the Modi government and by adopting “e-governance” his dispensation has been successful in removing middlemen from power corridor.